Cosa Nostra News

Former Detroit mobster Alan “Gunner” Lindbloom finished a 13-year prison term last year. While inside, he decided that thug life was not for him, so he put down the gun and picked up the pen, so to speak. Alan “Gunner” Lindbloom. He is related to Detroit's infamous Tocco family through his mother. His book,  To Be A King , is available now.  The following is excerpted from The National Crime Syndicate's interview with him. It includes a little anecdote centered on how Gunner, one drunken evening in a nightclub in Manhattan, hit on Luchese crime family boss Vittorio "Little Vic" Amuso's girl.... Where did the nickname ‘Gunner’ come from? Alan: Believe it or not, my real middle name is Gunner. Originally, my father wanted to name me Gunner. But my Sicilian grandparents Tocco wanted my name to be Alanzo. There was a lot of contention between both sides of my family over this, but eventually a compromise was reached: my name would be “Alan” (a shortened...

Looking for a good mob-related read? You might want to check out To Be a King , a novel "based on a Detroit organized crime family," as the author, Alan Gunner Lindbloom, said of it. Lindbloom certainly writes with authority, having been an associate of the Detroit Mafia; specifically, the  Tocco crime family . He's actually a member of the Tocco family via his mother. Lindbloom could kick some serious ass, but he's one of the nicest guys I have ever spoken with. Lindbloom was released from prison last year after serving a 13-year stint for extortion, bank robbery, armed robbery, and several weapons violations. He certainly hit the ground running since then, writing, giving interviews, appearing on television. He even launched " Our Thing"  (Cosa Nostra in Italian) apparel.... Lindbloom has been setting the mob-related blogosphere on fire, with major stories running on many key Mafia-related news sites, including The Gangster Report , G...

"Black Bill" Tocco, founder of the Detroit mob. Four major busts in six months and all of the investigations involve customary mafia locales: New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Providence and Newark. One of the traditional mob hotbeds absent from the recent slew of arrests and convictions was Detroit, a longstanding picture of stability and efficiency in an underworld landscape littered with defectors, dissidents and dim-bulb thugs.... The Detroit mafia lives in the shadows. It always has, now, more than ever. “They don’t chase the news cameras like in other cities and a lot of them have been very adept of veiling themselves in legitimacy,” said former federal prosecutor and organized crime task force member Keith Corbett, of the area’s ruling mob powers. “In relative terms, it’s been a recipe for success, in that most of them have avoided long, if any, prison sentences and, for the most part, very few people have any idea who they are.”